Algerian journalist charged with ‘glorifying terrorism’

ALGIERS: An Algerian journalist and rights activist was taken into custody on Sunday facing a charge of “glorifying terrorism,” one of his lawyers said.
Hassan Bouras was also charged with belonging to a terrorist organization and “plotting against state security with the aim of changing the system of governance,” lawyer Abdelghani Badi told AFP.
Bouras allegedly used “technical and media means to recruit individuals against the authority of the state,” Badi said.
Bouras was arrested on September 6 in El Bayadh, some 500 kilometers (300 miles) southwest of the capital Algiers, and his home was searched for unknown reasons, according to the Algerian Human Rights League (LADDH).
Bouras was sentenced to a year in prison in 2016 for “insulting a judge, a public forces member and a government body.”
At the time rights group Amnesty International said Bouras was a “prisoner of conscience,” stating that he was jailed over a video exposing corruption of local officials in El Bayadh.
According to prisoners’ rights group CNLD, around 200 people are in jail in connection with the Hirak pro-democracy protest movement that has shaken the North African country sporadically since 2019, or over individual freedoms.

Algerian journalist charged with ‘glorifying terrorism’